F 189 
.55 B6 
Copy 1 



ANNALS OF SILVEB SPRING. 



By gist BLAIE, Maj. J.A.R.C, U. S. A. 



Records of The Columbia Histobical Society, Vol. XXI, 1918 



.SrB<^ 



F 189 
.S5 B6 
Copy 1 



Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. V. 




Ruins of Montgomery Bi.air\s House at Silver Sprin(;, Burnt by 
THE Confederates Under General Early. 






[Reprinted from The Kkcords of the ColulMBIa Historical Society, 
Vol. 21, 1918.] 



ANNALS OF SILVER SPRING. 

By gist BLAIR, Maj. J.A.R.C, U. S. A. 
(Read before the Society, April 17, 1917.) 

Montgomery County, within which Silver Spring is 
situated, was segregated from Prince George's County 
in 1748, when it became a part of Frederick County. 
Its historic soil even then should have felt and heard 
in whispers the coming of great events. General 
Braddock marched across it on his way to defeat in 
the French and Indian War, where General Washing- 
ton gained the first experiences of a soldier. In his 
company and as a companion, my great great-grand- 
father, Christopher Gist, born and raised in Baltimore, 
also marched across the soil of Old Montgomery. 

The few and scattered settlements which were then 
in existence were not near Silver Spring. Indians, 
principally Piscatawags, roamed over the country and 
as late as 1797 an act of assembly was passed for Mont- 
gomery County, offering rewards of $30 per head for 
every wolf over six months old and $4 for every one 
under that age.^ No doubt these wolves then made 
their homes around Silver Spring, because the first 
settlements ran along Rock Creek and the Eastern 
Branch of the Potomac. Silver Spring remained as 
wild as any spot on the banks of the Mississippi or 
Columbia Rivers. No sounds of population thrilled 
her waving pine trees and the flush of life in the bud- 
ding of the springtime must have been without man's 
knowledge or his care. The shades and shadows of 
Silver Spring were left unnoticed by the early settlers, 

iSeharf's "History of Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 641. 

155 



156 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

who, stimulated by the remunerative prices for to- 
bacco, reduced the land of Montgomery County to cul- 
tivation.2 This staple so appealed to Marylanders 
when the first settlements occurred that it was used in 
the place of money as a medium of exchange. Wages 
were paid in tobacco and in 1732 tobacco was made a 
legal tender at the rate of one penny per pound. 
Fines for criminal offenses were paid in it; Sabbath- 
.breaking or selling liquor on Sunday, were punished at 
the rate of from 200 to 2,000 pounds of tobacco and 
even the salary of the learned and witty rector of Kock 
Creek parish was paid in it, he enjoying an income of 
ninety hogsheads of tobacco a year.^ In making ref- 
erence to these early settlers of Montgomery County, 
who exhausted her lands and whose life is now largely 
forgotten with its come-easy, go-easy methods, we 
must not forget the brilliant and gifted Philip Barton 
Ke}^, who lived in luxury at Woodley, as well as the 
second one of that name, son of Francis Scott Key, 
author of the "Star Spangled Banner," the latter 
shot by General Sickles two blocks from here.^ The 
new Key Bridge across the Potomac River where the 
old Aqueduct Bridge exists will when built carry the 
name of Key down to posterity among us. 

These were bright and happy days for the old 
squires of Montgomery County and our District of 
Columbia, who built handsome homes and lived at ease 
in these neighborhoods.^ The parson's home con- 
tinues standing in the county and is known as ' ' Hayes ' ' 
and is occupied and owned by Mr. Gr. Thomas Dunlop, 
one of the descendants of James Dunlop, who bought 
it about 1792 from the parson's estate. 

2Scharf's "History of Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 666. 
3 Forbes Lindsay's "History of the City of Washington," p. 23. 
iScharf's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 399. 
5 Scharf 's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 399. 



am 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 157 

This ParsoLi] Williamson was one of the richest men 
of the time and he rode straight to hounds, negotiated 
his three bottles of wine at a sitting and freely backed 
his or his friends' race-horses and played his whist for 
double eagle points and five on the rubber as well as 
the best of them. Another like him lived at "Clean 
Drinking Manor" — a certain John Coates by name, 
who received a grant of land from the Crown in 1680 
of 1,400 acres which lay to the north. This great prop- 
erty was enjoyed, lived in and worked until it finally 
descended through the female line to a certain Charles 
Jones, who erected a handsome Manor House upon it 
in 1750. The Joneses, like the Coateses,were the same 
jovial kind and the Joneses' last descendant was buried 
on his ground and apparently was then not only dead, 
but bankrupt, too, for he left this epitaph upon an old 
stone to mark his grave :° 

To the southeast of Silver Spring lay "Warburton," 
the home of the Diggs family. A part of this manor 
was known as "Green Hill," named after the ancestral 
home of the Diggses in Kent County, England, where 
Sir Dudley Diggs lived in the reign of James the First. 
And William Dudley Diggs, who resided here, has en- 
deared himself to every one of us, because he took into 
his home as a guest the now famous L 'Enfant, when 
poor and old and without a friend but his dogs, and 
kept him and fed him without cost until he died in 
1825, and he buried him in his garden — a lovely spot 
he had designed and laid out near his house.'^ He is 

7 Forbes Lindsay, p. 21 and p. 71. 

e T. H. S. Boyd's "History of Montgomery Co.," p. 31. 

' ' Here lies the body and bones 
Of old Walter C. Jones 
By his not thinking 
He lost 'Clean Drinking,' 
And by his shallow pate, 
He lost his vast estate." 



158 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

described as a tall, melancholy man of distinguished 
appearance, dressed in threadbare surtout and high 
bell-crowned hat, leaning heavily upon a staff and 
followed by one half dozen hunting dogs. 

This beautiful place, still called ''Green Hill," 
owned by the estate of Elisha Eiggs, is occupied each 
summer by Mr. and Mrs. George Howard, a grandson. 
The garden in which Major L 'Enfant was buried was 
laid out by him, showing much of the same wonderful 
talent which he displayed in laying out the city of 
Washington. It is still carefully preserved by Mr. 
and Mrs. Howard and when the remains of Major 
L 'Enfant were removed to Arlington, I was invited to 
be present at the disinterment as a representative of 
the owners of the property, and witnessed the removal 
of his remains and was given a section of the cedar 
tree which grew at the head of the grave and whose 
roots passed through it and which no doubt was par- 
tially nourished by the remains of Major L 'Enfant. 

The places of "Riversdale," "Arlington," "Ana- 
lostan," "Duddington," and others were within rid- 
ing distance and enjoyed by similar owners.^ These 
great estates and landed proprietors surrounded Sil- 
ver Spring and the District of Columbia. Their 
owners and residents were wonderfully prosperous, 
possessed many slaves, and in part belonged to excel- 
lent families of English origin. They drank, were 
addicted to duelling, racing and cock fighting, and lived 
as gentlemen then lived. 

But besides this they were intensely patriotic and 
the Revolution found numbers of them fighting every- 
where in the ranks of the colonists.^ It was among 
these settlers and tobacco planters, on whose patriot- 
ism I have not time to dwell, on the first day of Octo- 

8 Forbes Lindsay, p. 27. 

oScharf's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 643. 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 159 

ber, 1776, that Montgomery County was separated 
from Frederick County and created into a county by 
itself. At this time they were seething with animosity 
towards the mother country, so quite naturally Richard 
Montgomery's name appealed to the mind and heart 
of every man. This brilliant Irishman, who had 
fought with General Wolfe at Quebec in the English 
army, had married a daughter of Judge Robert R. 
Livingston, of New York, where he had settled. Early 
in the dispute, however, he took sides with the colonies 
and in 1775, giving up the comforts and luxuries in 
which he lived, victoriously led an expedition into 
Canada, where he was rapidly conquering the entire 
Province, when the question of a new ^ame for our 
county arose. And they selected his name— ' ' Montgom- 
ery. ' ' Alas, his living fame was short-lived. Perhaps 
few men have ever lived whose untimely death caused 
keener regrets than that of General Montgomery, who 
died like the great Wolfe in the hour of his triumph at 
Quebec and his remains now lie in the churchyard of 
Trinity Church in New York City, surrounded by the 
whirl and eddy of Wall Street. But his death inten- 
sified the devotion of Americans to his memory, and 
counties and cities, and children, were alike named for 
him. My grandfather, Francis Preston Blair, was one 
of those who sought to perpetuate his fame by naming 
a child in his honor and my father was therefore named 
''Montgomery Blair," so Montgomery Blair living in 
Montgomery County both traced their name to this 
early hero in our struggle for independence. 

Silver Spring lay in j^eaceful slumber during these 
stirring years and not until my grandfather, who had 
been brought from Kentucky by Andrew Jackson, 
President of the United States, soon after his election, 
rode into its delightful wilds on his horse, Selim, and 



160 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

discovered the beautiful sparkling spring from whicli 
its name is derived, did it begin to live on the map. 
He had purchased this saddle horse from General Wil- 
liam Lingan Gaither, after whose family the prosper- 
ous town of Gaither sburg, in Montgomery County, 
takes its name, then a representative man, and while 
riding Selim one day outside the boundary of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, his horse became frightened and 
threw his rider and ran away among the thick growth 
of pines in the valley to the west of the road which is 
now known as Georgia Avenue, in the District of Co- 
lumbia, formerly Seventh Street Road, in the county. 
He followed his horse into the woods and found him 
snared by the reins by a bush which had caught the 
reins dangling, and near the place was a beautiful 
spring full of white sand and mica which the gush of 
the water from the earth forced into a small column 
which sparkled as it rose and fell like silver. He was 
charmed with the spot and purchased the property. 
It was not dear and I have a parchment certificate 
showing that some of the land was bought direct from 
the state. My earliest memory of Silver Spring in- 
cludes this beauty of the spring described by him and 
quite famous at the time, but alas, it is now no longer 
the same. The column of shining silver, sand and mica, 
ever rising, ever falling, ever sparkling in the water 
and the sunlight, was presided over by a marble statue 
of a beautiful water nymph placed there by my grand- 
father, and it was endless joy for me, a little country 
boy, to sit and watch and dream upon this exquisite 
combination of white marble and living water. But 
like many dreams of childhood it has gone. A freshet 

10 T. H. S. Boyd 's ' ' History of Montgomery Co., ' ' p. 92. 

11 Scharf 's "History of Western Maryland," Vol. 1, p. 764. 

12 George Alfred Townseud 's ' ' Washington Outside and Inside, ' ' pp. 
718, 719. 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 161 

caused by a heavy storm washed earth from the sur- 
rounding country into the spring and destroyed the 
sand and mica. No effort has since been able to renew 
the simple beauty of that early Silver Spring. The 
sand does not sparkle as it did, nor the mica shine in 
the sunlight, and I have heard people say as they gazed 
at it, why was tliis called Silver Spring? 

Francis Preston Blair^"^ was born at Abingdon, Vir- 
ginia, April 12, 1791. His father, James, was the son of 
John Blair, acting president of Princeton University, 
when Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, whose statue you can see on Connecticut 
Avenue and N Street, was called there to be president 
of the University. James Blair, after marrying in Vir- 
ginia, removed to Kentucky, where he was Attorney- 
General of the State for some thirty years. My grands- 
father married Eliza Violet Gist, whose grandfather 
was that same Christopher Gist who had marched 
across Montgomery County with Braddock to battle 
with the French about a hundred years before. After 
engaging in the contest in Kentucky between the Old 
Court and New Court which almost destroyed the state, 
and serving as clerk of the New Court, he became in- 
terested in the Kentucky Argus, a Democratic news- 
paper published at Frankfort, and he wrote in this 
paper a strong article denouncing nullification, which 
attracted the attention of General Jackson, then Pres- 
ident of the United States, who was strongly opposed 
to disunion. President Jackson sent for my grand- 
father and in 1830 helped him to establish a newspaper 
in Washington, the special purpose of which was to de- 
fend and explain the policies of the administration. 
This paper, the Globe, became a power and the history 
of Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations can best 

13 Manuscript Life by Montgomery Blair. 
12 



162 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

be understood from its columns. But after Van Buren's 
defeat, the Globe having warmly denounced the South- 
ern leaders, was reorganized when President Polk suc- 
ceeded to the Presidency, and he dismissed my grand- 
father as editor but sought to retain his friendship and 
offered him a foreign mission. Mr. Blair declined the 
mission, and said, according to my father, that in re- 
lieving him of his editorship President Polk had con- 
ferred upon him the greatest favor, and that nothing 
could induce him to give up his home at Silver Spring.^'* 
My grandfather retained his opinions and later vig- 
orously opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
and declared its repeal a declaration of war against the 
Union by the Southern leaders. 

Francis Preston Blair in those days was a ''free- 
soil" Democrat. He opposed the extension of slavery 
and believed that it could be gradually eradicated. 
These views were those of Jackson and the great fol- 
lowing who looked to him for leadership. He felt that 
slavery was but a wedge with which the South would 
split the Union and if they could not rule it they would 
try to ruin it. The Southern leaders slowly forced 
the old Jackson free-soil men out of control of the 
party and into retirement and tried to absorb the coun- 
try as well, and their success so increased their pride 
and contempt for the opinion of all opposition that 
they repealed the Missouri Compromise law and ac- 
tually threatened to overwhelm the entire country with 
the evils and abuses of slavery.^^ 

At this trumpet call my grandfather withdrew from 
his retirement at Silver Spring to aid the Republican 
party, which had already started in a feeble way in 
1854 in Wisconsin with the purpose of restricting slav- 

i4Eufus Eockwell Wilson, "Washington the Capital City," Vol. 2, 
p. 41. 

isKloeberg's "Formation of the Eepublican Party," p. 37. 



Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. VI. 




Silver Spring, Francis Blair".s House, General Breckenridge's 
Headquarters. 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 1^3 

eiy. A call for a National Republican Convention or 
gathering at Pittsburgh, February 22, 1856, was issued 
from Washington on January 17, 1856, in order to per- 
fect its organization and provide for a National Con- 
vention at- some subsequent date.^*^ My grandfather 
took an active part in issuing this call from Washing- 
ton. He attended the conference at Pittsburgh, which 
was composed of many discordant elements, "whigs, 
abolitionists, free soldiers, and native Americans, and 
came near breaking up," and an authority says that 
through the ''efforts of Lewis Clephane, of Washing- 
ton, D. C, Francis Preston Blair was made permanent 
chairman or President, without objection, and his abil- 
ity and tact and discretion prevented a complete 
fiasco."^' He certainly presided over the meeting at 
Pittsburgh which organized the party. An executive 
committee was selected and it issued a call for a Con- 
vention to meet in Philadelphia on June 17. Fremont 
was nominated for the Presidency. ^^ My grandfather 
was a delegate to this convention and as General Fre- 
mont had married Miss Jessie Benton, the daughter of 
his old friend, Senator Benton from Missouri, in whose 
office my father started to practice law, it is natural to 
suspect he had something to do in selecting the first 
candidate for the Presidency of the Republican party. ^^ 
He was delegate at large for Maryland to the Conven- 
tion in 1860, when Mr. Lincoln was nominated, and 
after his election to the Presidency he was a constant 
adviser and friend of the President, and my father, 
Montgomery, became his Postmaster-General.^'^ 

The Silver Spring grounds and gardens were exten- 

16 " Eepublicau Conventions Since 1856," by Henry H. Smith. 

17 "Political EecoUections, " by George W. Julian, p. 147. 

18 Appleton 's Encyclopaedia, Vol. 2, p. 688. 

19 ' ' Republican Party, ' ' by Praneis Ciirtis. 

20 TJ. S. Magasine and Democratic Etview, July, 1845, Vol. 17, p. 14, 
article entitled ' ' Blair and the Globe. ' ' 



164 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

sive and beautiful. The entrance, always called by the 
negroes the *'Big Grate," was just across the Maryland 
line from the District line. One of the boundary stones 
of the District of Columbia as it was laid out under 
General Washington is within sight of the gate. The 
old carriage drive wound through heavy forests, until 
it neared the house, when one drove through a row of 
horse chestnut trees, beautiful to look at when in bloom, 
then through a row of large silver pines. The drive- 
way was thought to have been modelled after one of 
those one sees in the "Bois" in Paris. Crossing a 
rustic bridge one arrived at the house, in old days of 
mouse color, and of the type of a French chateau. The 
circle enabled one to turn conveniently and look at 
plants or shrubs in a little valley below the drive. The 
summer kitchens were close to the house, so the negroes 
could run with the dishes and serve them quite hot to 
guests in the dining room or large enclosed glass piazza. 

A fine row of sugar maple trees lined the walk from 
the house to the spring, some two city blocks away, on 
both sides of which were lawns improved with shrubs 
and trees, many of which were imported. 

The rose garden and vegetable garden, the vault in 
which my great-grandfather and mother had been 
buried, the grapery, peach orchard and some great fig 
bushes, which furnished quantities of fruit, were in 
close proximity and all the land surrounding them 
were kept under a high state of cultivation and inter- 
spersed with walks and paths and hedges. Near the 
house and across the path leading to the summer 
kitchen was a large cane break, the plants for which 
had been brought from Canewood, Kentucky, the home 
of Greneral Nathaniel Gist, a Eevolutionary officer and 
father of my grandmother. This cane grew so thick 
and kept so green during the winter that game often 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 165 

remained there during severe weather for days, find- 
ing comfort and shelter. Some of this cane still grows 
in the same spot. 

Not far from the spring was the dairy and ' ' quarters. ' ' 
There the slaves lived and adjoining them were the 
stables. A roadway ran due west from the spring at 
the beginning of which was a large summer house 
called the Acorn, named on account of its shape. This 
Acorn was built of solid timber, colored like an acorn, 
with its side supports of gnarled oak, its inside of 
dressed lumber, and a lamp hanging in the center. 

Spring stones were placed around its outside, adding 
much to its beauty and seats were inside of it. Below 
this was a large pond in which was an island of spring 
stones covered with native honeysuckle. The pond 
had garlands of plants and roses on its banks in suc- 
cessive tiers, each tier of a kind to stand higher than 
its neighbor which was nearer the pond, so to the eye 
they rose from the water like seats in a colosseum. 
The effect was startlingly beautiful, especially when 
these flowers were in bloom. Below the pond was a 
bath from a nearby spring, made of concrete and im- 
proved by a bath-house, having large overhanging 
trees and quantities of myrtle, and English ivy clus- 
tered and growing profusely all over the space within 
the enclosure. 

Following the path or roadway further towards the 
west, we passed the mill which in my childhood was no 
longer used. It had an old wheel turned by water and 
the inside of the mill faced an interior courtyard and 
opposite it were large barns for cattle. In my child- 
hood this mill was a mass of English ivy and looked 
like a ruin. 

Following the pathway further one passed across 
Maria's Bridge, a stucco spring stone ornamental 



166 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

structure, and struck into the woods. The path thence 
wound through these along a stream of water which 
took its origin from the springs mentioned. The tirst 
grottoes one met on the walk, which was called by my 
grandfather the "Grotto Walk," or by some others 
"Lovers' Walk," was the "Bishop's Chair"; thence 
by a rustic bridge, the roadway of which was one huge, 
uneven stone, you came to the principal feature 
of the walk, a succession of grottoes, a spring and 
another bath. The largest of these grottoes was 
sunk deep into a hillside, above which grew lofty trees 
and underbrush, and it always had an air of mystery 
about it which suggested secrecy and seclusion. This 
Grotto walk wound around, turning with the windings 
of this stream and at various places had seats and 
bowers. "St. Andrew's Well" and "Violet Spring" 
are two of the others which I recall. The walk was 
about a mile in length. One place was named "Hern's 
Oak," a majestic tree which recalled Falstaff ; and the 
streams, and planting, gave the walk everywhere va- 
riety and beauty. 

My grandfather loved Silver Spring. It was there 
he enjoyed his friends and as early as 1854 he gave his 
Washington house to his son, Montgomery, and set- 
tled down among his flowers and slaves and books. 
His social life was rich. People delighted in visiting 
him and readily made what was then a long journey 
in a carriage or on horseback to see him. He knew no 
enemies, political or otherwise, at his generous table. 
There north and south were treated alike. His daugh- 
ter, Mrs. S. P. Lee, and her husband. Admiral S. P. Lee, 
resided with my grandfather and grandmother, and 
she and her husband inherited the old home and main- 
tained many of his customs during her life. Her por- 
trait, by Sully, when nineteen, is one of the valued 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 1G7 

possessions in the house and it is said of her she wonkl 
never have another taken, nor even a pliotograph 
made, always laughing and saying "Nobody cares to 
look at the picture of an old woman, nor even at the 
old woman herself."-^ She lived to be eighty-nine 
years of age and her love of life and people lasted until 
the end. Many stories were told by Mrs, Lee, who 
spent an entire winter in the White House when Gen- 
eral Jackson was President, of his ready wit. He 
must have liked her, since he gave Mrs. Lee, among 
other gifts, the ring presented to him by Mrs, Eliza 
W. Custis, February 22, 1825, which Mrs. Custis sent 
to him by the hand of General Lafayette, saying "the 
birthday of Washington is the fit time for a tribute of 
respect to him whose glorious achievements place him 
next to the father of our country. On this day I pre- 
sent to General Jackson a ring of the hero's hair, of 
the color it was when he led our soldiers to victory. 
It was made in this city and of American gold. Wear 
it in remembrance of him who was first in the hearts 
of our country and of her who gives it to you with her 
best wishes for your health and happiness. To Gen- 
eral Jackson. ""2 

After General Jackson's term. President Van Buren, 
his successor, was intimate with my grandfather and 
gave his portrait to him on leaving. He was called 
the "red fox" by his opponents and always carica- 
tured as one.^^ This portrait shows this expression. 
It still hangs on the walls of the old house at Silver 
Spring. Reference has already been made to the 
strong feeling always displayed by my grandfather 
when any reference was made to dissolving the Union. 
He had long felt the South was going to attempt to dis- 

21 Article in Evening Star, September 14, 1906. 
~ Article in Evening Star, September 14, 1906. 
23 Evening Star, September 14, 1906. 



168 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

member it and create an aristocratic empire founded 
on slavery. My grandfather was thoroughly demo- 
cratic. He loved the whole country and believed its 
future depended upon democracy in its true, not party, 
meaning. Mr. Clay's Missouri Compromise on the 
slavery question had held the country together. So, 
when his young cousin, John C. Breckinridge, came to 
the United States Senate as Mr. Clay's successor, my 
grandfather naturally hoped he would take strong 
ground against any repeal of this law, which would at 
once cause the country to renew the dangerous agita- 
tion of the slavery question. This question was pend- 
ing when one day Mr. Breckinridge visited Silver 
Spring and the interview between him and my grand- 
father is described by Mrs. Lee; she details how he 
pleaded with Breckinridge to stand up against any re- 
peal of the law and prophesied it was certain to cause 
civil war and the questions end in blood. Breckinridge 
returned to Silver Spring a Confederate general with 
Early on his famous raid. 

Mr. Jefferson Davis was also a frequent visitor at 
Silver Spring, and true to his best nature, my grand- 
father never allowed politics to interfere with his 
friendships. He kept them and they kepi him, so 
when President Davis was arrested and threatened 
with death or imprisonment, Mrs. Davis quite natu- 
rally appealed to Francis Preston Blair for succor and 
help. I have in my possession a hitherto unpublished 
letter in which she makes the appeal and as she de- 
scribes the capture of Jefferson Davis by the Federal 
forces and the disguise he wore, which was exhibited 
in the War Department for many years, the account 
of the capture as given by his wife may properly be 
included in this article: 



Blair: Annals of Siher Spring. 169 

Savannah, Ga., June 6, 1865, 

"Private and confidential. 

"My dear Mr. Blair: Fearing ill treatment at the hands of 
your people in the event of the fall of Richmond, I left it 
with my family on the 30th of March, and went to Charlotte, 
where after a residence of ten days, I was again forced to 
give up the house I had secured and go by rail and wagon 
route to Ashville, N. C, There I heard of the surrender of 
General Lee's grand army and knowing that General John- 
ston's was the only barrier left between us and your troops, 
I deterined to go down to the coast of Florida and thence to 
embark for Europe for I had but little hope that our dear ex- 
hausted army could long resist such overwhelming odds, as 
your people could bring against it. Mr. Davis had sent his 
private Secretary to us the day before I came to this decision 
in order that he might take care of us. Five wagons were 
furnished us in which we placed our baggage and such supplies 
of groceries as the exhausted state of the country enabled us to 
procure. The latter we hoped to trade for milk, butter, or 
shelter, on the road, because Confederate money was not cur- 
rent in the country and I had no specie. When it was ru- 
mored in Abbeville that we were going with only one gentle- 
man over a wagon route infested by bands of demoralized 
Confederate soldiers, three paroled Confederate gentlemen 
offered to accompany the train, stating at the same time that 
they were unarmed, could not fight the Federals if they were 
not, but could resist by an appearance of strength at least, the 
poor discouraged, disorganized confederate soldiers, who might 
with their hopes of success have lost their nice sense of duty. 
The Hon. Armistead Burt heard the offer of service, and also 
the announcement of paroled disability. Thus accompanied 
I went to Washington, Ga., where I heard of Gen. Johnston's 
surrender not only of his army but of a whole section to the 
command of which he had not been assigned on conditions of 
utter submission on the part of our people. Before the official 
notification of the surrender had been received, nay before the 
rumor was credited, a train of seven wagons was organized 



170 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

and the young men who accompanied me. Lt. Hathaway, 
Mr. Messie, and IMr. Munroe, finding me still dependent upon 
their protection begged me to consider them at my service. 
Capt. Moody of Mississippi, and Maj. Moran, of Louisiana, 
joined me announcing as did my other friends, that they could 
not resist the Federals and were unarmed, but would try to 
protect me from our own people. These with my young 
brother, eighteen years old, a furloughed midshipman, also 
unarmed and the seven wagoners who had volunteered to 
drive us, because they wanted the transportation, out as far 
"West as I was going, and my two colored men servants, con- 
stituted the "belligerent train" to catch which a Brigade was 
sent out. Two of the teamsters had, as I afterwards learned 
thrown their muskets used while in service into the wagons 
and one had a broken revolver. After our capture I heard 
that upon meeting two negroes with some powder and a half 
bucket of ammunition, and finding that it had been stolen by 
them, one of the wagoners took away from them, fearful they 
might make an insurrection and use of it and expressed his 
intention to trade the ammunition for food on the road. Thus 
protected, thus equipped, ignorant of Mr. Davis' condition, 
certain of one thing only, that he would never seek personal 
immunity by deserting the remnant of our people who w^ere 
still resistant and willing to die rather than be enslaved, I 
started out upon the world hoped by constant travelling to 
reach a port from which I might embark for England, there 
to await in poverty but freedom, the loss of all I held dear. 
AVhen we were camping out the second night after we left 1 
/ Washington, our camp was entered by a company of paroled 
Confederates under the impression that it was a 'treasure 
train,' but the Captain fortunately recognized me as having 
dressed his wounds in Richmond, and after an apology left 
us. Before they did so I explained to them that a friend 
had furnished us with $2,500 in gold in Washington but that 
this was all. Distracted aboat my country and my husband, 
beset upon every side by foes internal and external, I travelled 
two days further, at the expiration of that time we discovered 
that we had been followed by a number of General Wheeler's 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 171 

command, nearly a regiment of Alabama Cavalry, and that 
they intended to 'storm' our camp that night, taking all our 
mules and horses and such of our baggage as they needed. 
It was very bright moonlight, and we loaded all the arms we 
Iiad, a fine little colts revolver and a fine Adam's self cocking 
revolver which had been presented to Mr. Davis by the maker 
and given by him to me to take care of and we retired until 
the moon should set, knowing they would not attack us in all 
probability until that time and then I hoped to throw myself 
upon their generosity, and appeal to them as my legitimate 
protection, and thus to render the use of fire arms unnec- 
essary. However, before day my husband joined us. He had 
been travelling nearly the same road accompanied by his staff, 
the Secretary of the Treasury pro-tem, Judge Reagan, and six 
armed men as his escort. One of his aids heard at a house 
that we were to be attacked and robbed, and Mr. Davis rode 
fifty miles in twelve hours to join us, and to prevent it. He 
came upon the rendezvous of the cavalry and frightened them 
away — then joined us for a day and a night, at the expiration 
of which time we bade him farewell, not expecting to meet 
him again, ibut after travelling for a day and night in front of 
us, he received information that one hundred and fifty men of 
the same command were at Irvington or Irvingsville and joined 
us again for purposes of protection, travelling all the day 
before our capture with us. The night preceeding our capture 
we camped near a little stream bordered on both sides with a 
thick growth of underwood and tall trees. The road led across 
it and we camped on the side nearest to Irvingsville and the 
wood shut out the view of the road through which we trav- 
elled. Mr. Davis had been suffering from billions derangement 
and could not bear the weight of his Deringer pistol around 
his waist, therefore handed them to one of his aids. He did 
not intend to camp with us that night but to ride forward and 
meet the marauders, if possible, before they reached us. He, 
therefore, left his pistols in their holsters on the saddle, in the 
possession of his servant. As night drew on he seemed so 
exhausted that he decided to stay all night with us. Before 
I left Richmond in order to pay all the outstanding debts and 



172 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

to procure money enough to go away from there I sent my 
silver, china glass, and little ornaments, not excluding the 
little gifts received from dear friends, years ago, also as much 
of my clothing and of Mr. Davis's as was not absolutely in 
use, to be exposed for public sale — some at auction, some at 
different stores. I also sold the debris of our magnificent 
library, several hundred volumes, which had been sent us 
after the Federals robbed us of all that they considered it 
worth their while to steal or sell. As those things were sold 
for Confederate money, I left it in Richmond to be converted 
into gold and sent to me by some convenient opportunity. 
Judge Reagan brought it to me in a pair of saddle bags upon 
a pack mule and told me it amounted to a little over $8,000 
in gold. This was left in the ambulance in which we travelled. 
This money and a pair of fine carriage horses which poverty 
had compelled me to sell, and which the citizens of Richmond 
bought, and returned to me, constituted all my worldly wealth. 
Just before day the enemy charged our camp yelling like 
demons. Mr. Davis received timely warning of their ap- 
proach but believing them to be our own people deliberately 
made his toilette and was only disabused of the delusion, when 
he saw them deploying a few yards off. He started down to the 
little stream hoping to meet his servant with his horse and arms, 
but knowing he would be recognized, I pleaded with him to let 
me throw over him a large waterproof wrap which had often 
served him in sickness during the summer season for a dress- 
ing gown and which I hoped might so cover his person that in 
the grey of the morning he would not be recognized. As he 
strode off I threw over his head a little black shawl which was 
around my own shoulders, saying that he could not find his 
hat and after he started sent my colored woman after him 
with a bucket for water hoping that he would pass unobserved. 
He attempted no disguise, consented to no subterfuge but if 
he had in failure is found the only matter of cavil. 

"Had he assumed an elaborate female attire as a sacrifice to 
save a country the heart of which trusted in him, it had been 
well. When he had proceeded a few yards the guards around 
our tents with a shocking oath called out to know who that 



Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. VII. 




Mrs. Jefferson Davis. 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 173 

was. I said it was my mother and he halted Mr. Davis who 
threw off the cloak with a defiance and when called upon to 
surrender did not do so and but for the interposition of my 
person between his and the guns would have been shot. I 
told the man to shoot me if he pleased, to which he answered 
he 'would not mind it a bit,' which I readily believe. While 
this was transpiring a scene of robbery was going on in camp, 
which beggars description — trunks were broken open, letters 
and clothing scattered on the ground — all the gold taken, 
even our prayer books and bibles taken from the ambulances. 
These latter articles were easily recovered as being of no use 
to the robbers. My baby's little wardrobe was stolen almost 
entirely, the other children shared the same fate. When we 
reached Savannah, the city contributed a part of their chil- 
dren's clothes to clothe them until I could have more made. 
The negroes were robbed of their wardrobe and the Federal 
soldiers wore their clothing before them, though reminded of 
the fact by the negroes. Our faithful slave Robert owned 
his horse which was taken from him and turned over to one of 
the officers as were my horses. Capt. Husdon so said his men 
received my gold, took the lion's share and secreted the rest 
for the soldiers, consequently Col. Pritchard's search for it 
among the valuables of the men was imsuccessful. Col. Pritch- 
ard did what he could to protect us from insult, but against 
robbery he was powerless to give us protection, though I feel 
sure he tried to prevent it. We were robbed not once, nor 
twice, but every time the wagons stopped. When we had 
progressed about ten miles on our dreary return from the scene 
of our capture, a man met us having a paper containing the 
first copy the cavalry had seen of Mr. Johnson's infamous 
accusation against Mr. Davis, and the reward offered for his 
apprehension. It gave him no uneasiness, and was evidently 
not believed by the men to be founded in truth. In con- 
versation with some of the officers, Mr. Davis' staff were told 
that it was fortunate that no resistance was made for they 
were ordered if any was offered to fire into the tents (there 
being only two, and those two containing women and children) 
and make a general massacre. Another said, 'bloody work' 



174 Records of the Columhia Historical Society. 

would have been made of the whole party. Col. Pritchard 
told me he did not expect to find Mr. Davis with me but came 
out to take my train and carry it back to Macon as a 'bellig- 
erent train.' In the jam of the attested fact, that not a gun 
was fired by our party, that no arms were found except those 
of Mr. Davis' escort, the gentlemen who accompanied me 
were thrown into prison to be tried for the violation of their 
parole. Will you not interest yourself for them ? When were 
men punished by a great nation for the offer of service to a 
helpless woman aiid her little defenceless children? There 
were no public papers — no one professes to have found any- 
thing of value, only a desolate woman's belongings and some 
commissar}^ 's stores for her little ones, and servants. Yet 
these unhappy young men are consigned to a prison though 
just released from a confinement of two years' duration only 
a month before. I thought Satan was the only being wicked 
enough to desire to punish men for the indulgence of the 
manly virtues whieh he is incapable of feeling. At your ad- 
vanced age you would do the same that they did for an un- 
protected woman. Will you take care of them and see that 
they have a fair trial ? ' ' 

After being brought to Old Point, where President 
Jefferson Davis was confined and away from her, Mrs. 
Davis states the unappreciative rogues of the country 
had left her a diminutive Japanese cabinet, and the 
more refined rogues of Old Point stole it with a little 
china cup and saucer — the gift of a dear friend, and 
numberless other petty larcenies. 

"Sick and without help, save at the hands of our guard, 
the 14th ]\Iaine, who had fought too long and too bravely to op- 
press women and children, kindly even sympathetically treated 
by the crew of the ship, I was forced to return to Savannah — 
here to exhaust the little money left me, with my little ones, 
unacclimated children and teething baby, wasting away from 
the hot climate. Sympathy and homes were proffered me on all 
sides but where all were robbed and beggared as well as I, the 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 175 

former only could be accepted, and now to you, I appeal to tell 
me for what I am detained here. Why I alone am excluded 
from my husband's trial? What have I done that I am a 
prisoner at large with my family in a strange place surrounded 
by detectives who report every visitor? Have I transgressed 
any rule of your government since I have been under its dread 
tyranny? Why am I kept in a garrisoned town bereft of 
home, friends, husband and the means of support? Insulted 
by a licentious press, which spreads upon its daily journals 
every agony of my tortured husband — May God forgive them 
they know not what they do. 

"I have written this to you because I know you would like to 
hear the truth, and trust me that I will tell it, knowing as well 
as you that the things I have said as the outpourings of my 
lieart to you would injure his cause if known to others. Please 
consider the letter entirely private. If I have been diffuse, it 
is because it is so hard to compress such conduct to the help- 
less in so small a compass. Let me tell you a significant fact. 
Save Col. Pritchard and Genl. Upton, no federal offieer offered 
me the courteous salutation usual from a gentleman to a lady 
until Lt. Grant of the 14th ]\Iaine took charge of us. We were 
treated with less eonsideration than I have seen my knightly 
husband show to the beggars who came to our door for alms. 
I never knew him to stand covered in the presence of a woman 
or allow one to be persecuted. With thoughts of 'martial' 
faith and country, he stands before me, and I can say no 
more. With sincerest affection, 

"Your distressed friend, 

' ' Navina Davis. ' ' 

Just before tliis General Early made his raid through 
Maryland — ''too late Early," as he was called. No 
history of Silver Spring would be complete without 
mention of the famous barrel, not the money barrel 
politicians love, but the barrel of Bourbon whiskey 
which lay in the cellar, and wdien powder and shot 
could not save the Capitol at Washington, it did. The 
officers of the Confederates made their headquarters 



176 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

at the old house, which is scarcely seven miles from 
this city, and proceeded to drink up as much of it as 
they could. They also found the dresses and clothes of 
my half-sister, Mrs. Comstock, dressed up as women and 
amused themselves dancing and drinking and instead 
of pushing through Fort Stevens that afternoon when 
few, if any, soldiers were on guard, remained at Silver 
Spring until morning. The Sixth Massachusetts ar- 
rived the following day and Washington was saved. 
General Early burned my father's house, known as 
"Falkland," which adjoined that of Silver Spring. It 
was a total loss, because although insured it was not in- 
sured against the public enemy. 

General Early afterwards denied having authorized 
this vandalism, when it was criticized by good people 
everywhere. My father was a member of Mr. Lincoln 's 
cabinet arid the only Southern man in it. His heart 
was full of tender feeling for the Southern people, and 
Virginia and Kentucky were full of his kin and boy- 
hood friends. Like my grandfather, during the war, 
he never failed in trying to lessen its sufferings and 
the numbers of Southern people whom he helped out 
of prison and aided were legion. When his house was 
burned he was in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet and great re- 
sentment arose on both sides. 

Eef erring to the house General Early's interview 
is as follows : 

"Recently in Maryland, the house of Gov. Bradford was 
burned without my orders. But I must add that I approved 
it and had I been present would have ordered it in retaliation 
for the burning of the house of Governor Letcher whom I 
know to be a very poor man and whose family was not allowed 
five minutes to remove clothing or other valuables. After- 
wards when in front of Washington some of my troops were 
very determined to destroy the house of Mr. Francis P. Blair 



Blair: Armals of Silver Spring. 177 

and had actually removed some of the furniture probably 
supposing- it to belong to his son^ a member of the Federal 
Cabinet. As soon as I came up I immediately stopped the 
proceeding and compelled the men to return every article so 
far as I knew and placed a guard to protect it. The house 
of his son, Montgomery Blair a member of the Cabinet, was 
subjected to a different rule for obvious reasons." 

As I have already said, the burning of Falkland ex- 
cited strong feelings of resentment. General Benja- 
min F. Butler immediately sent word that he intended 
retaliating upon the South for the outrage, but my 
father wished no retaliation. 

He wrote the following letter to General Butler : 

"Washington, D. C, 
"August 10, 1864. 

''My dear General Butler: I received, several days ago, your 
telegTam announcing the destruction of Seddon's in retaliation 
for the burning of mine. I have delayed acknowledging it be- 
cause whilst thankful for the consideration which induced you 
to resent my wrongs — I have yet regretted your action on this 
occasion. 

"It is not because I have any regard for Seddon or Letcher, 
that I regret the destruction of their property by the order of 
our military commanders. They deserve a much worse pun- 
ishment, I know, and I trust they may yet receive it, but it 
will not be punishjuent unless they get it at the hands of the 
law. I have a great horror of lawlessness and it does not 
remove my repugnance to it that it is practiced upon the law- 
less. If we allow the military to invade the rights of private 
property on any other grounds than those recognized by civi- 
lized warfare, there will soon cease to be any security whatever 
for the rights of civilians on either side. 

"The tendency of such measures is to involve our country 
in all the horrors of the Wars of the Fronde, of the petty 
Princes and Brigands of Italy, of the Guerillas of Spain, which 
made the plunder of the peaceful citizens' homes, highway 
robbery and assassination, the concomitants of the war. 



178 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

"No man, I know, would appreciate such results more than 
myself, and there are no talents on which I would sooner rely 
than yours to prevent it, if you had proper support. 

' ' Yours truly, 
''M. Blair." 

"It may be proper to say that it was intimated to me through 
ray postal agent that it was contemplated to burn Seddon's 
home shortly after mine was burned in retaliation for that act 
and I directed him to say that I hoped it would not be done. ' ' 

After the death of Francis P. Blair -and his wife, 
Mrs. S. P. Lee inherited Silver Spring for her life- 
time, with the proviso it should go to her son, Blair 
Lee, the present owmer and recently a senator from 
Maryland. Admiral S. P. Lee, her husband, resided 
there for many years. He served in the Navy through 
the Civil War with great distinction, and was the last 
survivor of the great war admirals. He had been 
commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 
and of the Mississippi Squadron during the Civil 
War. Welles in his diary gives him credit for great 
honesty in those days when this trait of character was 
often overlooked by those in command of blockades, 
who permitted blockade runners for a consideration 
to get through the blockade. Mr. Welles also tells us 
in his diary that he received for his thoroughness in 
catching these Confederate vessels the largest sum of 
prize money distributed. He was sailor-like in his 
farming. He saw the farm as he would a man-o '-war. 
His workmen reported like jackies at a roll call and it 
is said that all the daily doings — the fields plowed and 
planted — the state of each crop — the hours of every 
laborer — each and all, were set down in a log-book 
called ''the Silver Spring Log." He not only argued 
that farming should be reduced to a ship-shape system, 
but he did it. The Admiral remained living at Silver 



Blair: Annals of Silver Sprmg. 179 

Spring, known far and wide for his pleasant greetings 
to every neighbor and running his log until 1897, when 
he died at the age of eighty-five. 

Mygrandmother, Violet Gist, for whom I was named 
— a tall, strong-looking old lady — rode horseback every 
morning until a few days before her death, when she 
was eighty- two, and her spirit should linger along that 
winding roadway which follows Sligo Branch, now 
where the Seventh Day Adventists have a great sani- 
tarium. This was opened for her to ride horseback 
through these woods, long before the Civil War, and 
extended about seven miles almost entirely on the 
Silver Spring property. 

Francis Preston Blair had three sons besides the 
daughter who lived with him. The youngest, Francis^ 
P. Blair, Jr., was a member of Congress and in the 
United States Senate from Missouri, a general in the 
Union Army during the Civil War, commanding the 
Seventeenth Corps of Sherman's Army and active in 
retaining Missouri in the Union, in company with Gen- 
eral Lyon, and in whose honor the state has placed 
his statue by the side of Senator Benton in Statuary 
Hall in the Capitol at Washington. James L. Blair, 
the next brother, a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy, died 
at the early age of thirty-five. His widow lived at 
Silver Spring in her place, called the '' Moorings," 
until her death a few years ago. My father, the eld- 
est, was the most identified with Silver Spring, living 
there from 1853, when he returned from St. Louis, 
until his death in 1883. General Jackson appointed 
him to West Point, where he graduated and later re- 
signed to study law. Like my grandfather, he imbibed ■ 
the Jacksonian Democracy, believing in the everlast- 
ing Union of the states and the ultimate destruction 
of slave property. ( My grandfather owned numbers 



180 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

of slaves, among whom ''Uncle Henry," the coachman, 
and "Aunt Nanny," the cook, still figure in my mem- 
ory, but my father would never own a slave. He rep- 
resented a more militant attitude towards abolition. 
The dramatic events of the decades between 1853- 
1883 saw him always on the firing line.l My grand- 
father loved his ease and his Silver Spring, and I re- 
member him a very old gentleman in his silk dressing 
gown going into his rose garden and pulling off the 
heads of the roses by slipping them between his fingers 
and bringing them back in his dressing gown's pocket 
to lay them without stems in a beautiful silver dish, 
which was fashioned like a huge leaf, along the ten- 
drils of which ran a little water. And this dish, when 
filled with these rose heads, looked like some lovely 
big new flower. My father felt duty always calling to 
him. He helped secure a defense for John Brown at 
Harper's Ferry.^^ He defended Dred Scott before 
the Supreme Court of the United States. He sat as a 
delegate in the convention that nominated Fremont in 
1856. He represented Silver Spring and Montgomery 
County in the convention that nominated Lincoln in 
1860, as the delegate from the Sixth District of Mary- 
land. He was Postmaster-General under Mr. Lincoln, 
and when the President and cabinet hesitated about 
sending supplies to Fort Sumter, although the young- 
est member of the cabinet, he declared it treason and 
handed in his resignation, but President Lincoln de- 
clined to accept it and agreed with his view. He gave 
the country as Postmaster-General, free delivery, the 
postal car service, and made it what it is today.^^ 
He abrogated the franking privilege then enjoyed 

2* See Testimony of Chilton, Brown 's attorney, Pub. Doc. Eeport on 
J. B. Eaid. 

25 See a Pamphlet called ' ' Public Career of Montgomery Blair, ' ' by 
Madison Davis. 



Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI , Pl. VIII. 




Francis Preston Blair a\u His Wife, Violet Gist, as They Looked 
AT the End of the Civil War in the United States. From a Colored 
Photograph Owned by Major Gist Blair, Said to Have Been Taken 
at Silver Spring. 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 181 

by every small postmaster and brought down upon his 
head a storm of indignation. He curtailed and re- 
stricted the charges for railway mail transportation 
and brought against himself their power. ( See his Post 
Office Annual Report in 1861, p. 30 ; 1862, p. 32 ; 1863, 
Sec. 42.) 

He introduced the scheme for registering letters and 
exacted rigid accountability on the part of postal em- 
ployees. He established the Railway Post Office sys- 
tem, by which the railway car became a perambulating 
post office and letters weje distributed in the car direct 
to their destinationV^/ No one can now estimate the 
time saved in their delivery by this simple novelty. 
He drove out the private letter express business and 
what was familiarly called ''the penny post system," 
and introduced in its place the letter carrier and col- 
lection of letters. This is called the ''Free Delivery" 
system. By it the citizen received his letters at his 
residence or place of business and mailed his letters in 
locked boxes near his home or office, similar to what 
we have today. We have lived to see this extended 
into the great farming districts under the name of 
"Rural Free Delivery." 

He recommended and outlined the money order sys- 
tem in his annual report in 1862, adopted the month 
after he resigned. 

But his most far-reaching reform and accomplish- 
ment was the Universal Postal Union, suggested to him 
by Honorable John A. Kasson. See pages 11 and 12, 
Report of Postmaster-General, 1863. This was the 
organization of the countries of the world for an inter- 
national exchange of mail. He drew the rules sub- 
mitted to the Congress which met at Paris May 11, 

-6 Eepriuted from the Eecords of the Columbia Historical Society, 
"Washington, D. C, Vol. 13, in 1910. 



182 Records of the .Columbia Historical Society. 

1863, wliicli agreed to the tliirty-one articles, about the 
same today. ^'^ 

Great losses of revenue occurred by reason of the 
South seceding, and yet the great deficit arising in the 
Post Office of the year before was reduced 50 per cent, 
in the first year he held office, and in the year ending 
June 30, 1865, the surplus was $861,431 in the Post 
Office Department.^^ 

How the President felt when he resigned can best be 
understood from the letter he wrote him : 

"Executive Mansion, 
"Washington, D. C, 

"Sept. 23, 1864. 
' ' Honorable Montgomery Blair, 

"My dear Sir: You have generously said to me more than 
once that whenever your resignation could be a relief to me it 
was at my disposal. The time has come. You very well know 
that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with you 
personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been unsur- 
passed by that of any friend, and it is true that the War does 
not so greatly add to the difficulties of your Department as to 
those of some other. It is yet much to say, as I most truly 
can, that in the three years and a half during which you have 
administered the general Post Office, I remember no single 
complaint against you in connection therewith. 

"Yours, as ever, 
"A. Lincoln." 

After Mr. Lincoln's assassination he withdrew from 
the Republican party on the reconstruction questions 
and appeared before the Supreme Court in the Test 
Oath cases by which the laws to disfranchise the white 
people of the border states were successfully contested 
before the courts and presided over the first conven- 
tion in Maryland to demand the rights of her white 

27 See Testimony of Chilton, Brown 's attorney, Pub. Doc. Report on 
J. B. Raid. 

28 Report of Postmaster General, 1888, pp. 753-755. 



Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXI, Pl. IX. 




Montgomery Blair, «hile Postmaster-General of the United 

States. 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 183 

citizens and denounce tliese laws. He was a friend 
and champion of Tilden ; was of counsel for him before 
the Electoral Commission and boldly denounced the 
fraud by which Hayes was seated. He edited a news- 
paper called the Union in the city of Washington as 
Mr. Tilden 's representative, and for which the money 
was furnished by Mr. W. W. Corcoran. Its columns 
boldl}^ denounce the principal politicians of the day, 
both North and South, and long before the decision of 
the Electoral Commission was rendered, it declared in 
rather strong language just what it would be. It is 
not to be wondered that this newspaper is now not only 
difficult to find, but few even know of its existence. In 
the few hours given my father for the development of 
Silver Spring, he gave most of them to "Grace 
Church," which he helped establish in 1858. He was 
a lay reader in the Protestant Episcopal Church and 
vestryman in St. John's Church, Washington, D. C, as 
well as Grace Church, Montgomery County, for many 
years, and often during the winter when the clergyman 
could not officiate, drove through the cold, the snow, or 
rain from Washington to this little church in the coun- 
try, miles away, to read the services of the Episcopal 
Church to the few who gathered there. 

No more striking instance of his independence and 
fearless disregard of consequence to himself can be 
instanced than his denunciation of Captain Wilkes for 
seizing Mason and Slidell, Confederate Commission- 
ers, on a British ship. When Wilkes was being feted 
everywhere and had been thanked by a resolution of 
Congress, when the country was effervescing over 
Captain Wilkes, he saw the trouble ahead with Great 
Britain, and stood alone in the Lincoln cabinet against 
it, receiving the unmeasured abuse of the country, and 
the reproaches of his colleagues. He was right, and 



184 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

recently a pamphlet by Charles Francis Adams, called 
the ^^ Trent Affair," was published for private circu- 
lation in which he gives my father unstinted praise for 
his action and graphically portrays the sentiment of 
the country at the time and how close it brought us to 
a war with England. 

But these questions are historical and to be found 
in any history. 

Modern Silver Spring. 

When I returned from St. Louis to settle in Mary- 
land in 1897, Silver Spring was a cross-roads without 
inhabitants. A toll-gate existed about half a mile 
north of the station on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 
charging tolls to those who lived south of it for obtain- 
ing their mail. Rural free delivery did not then exist, 
so I circulated a petition for a post office for the dis- 
trict south of the toll-gate and the office of Silver 
Spring was named and established near the station on 
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and I was made post- 
master May 5, 1899. The office was kept in existence 
only by constant fighting, because it interfered se- 
riously with Sligo, a quarter of a mile away, and just 
north of the toll-gate, the receipts for that office then 
depending on the number of letters mailed and can- 
celled there. In 1900 the postmaster at Sligo suc- 
ceeded in having the Silver Spring office discontinued, 
but I secured a further hearing, and had the order dis- 
continuing it ''rescinded." I remained postmaster 
until February 21, 1906, and established the Money 
Order System and the Rural Free Delivery there with 
three carriers. The office requiring more time than I 
could give it, I resigned, and Mr. Frank L. Hewitt, my 
assistant, succeeded me and remained postmaster until 
removed by a Democratic administration. 

Silver Spring now has the Woman's Cooperative 



Col. Hist. Soc. Vol. XXI Pl. X. 




Mrs. Montgomery Blair, 186' 



Blair: Annals of Silver Spring. 185 

Improvement Society, organized about four years ago. 
It is a most efficient, useful and public-spirited organi- 
zation. Mrs. W. B. Newman, who was president until 
recentl}^, has been succeeded by Mrs. L. E. "Warren. 

The Volunteer Fire Association was organized two 
years ago, and possesses a complete modern fire appa- 
ratus. The president is William Juvenal, and Clay 
V. Davis secretary. 

The militia company, consisting of seventy-five men, 
drill in the Silver Spring Armory and served during 
the recent troubles on the border with Mexico. They 
are a "crack" company and considered one of the best 
in Maryland. 

Brooke Lee, son of Honorable Blair Lee, is captain, 
and Frank L. Hewitt lieutenant. 

Silver Spring at present consists of some seventy- 
five dwellings, ten stores, a mill, and a national bank. 
Its growth and prosperity are assured. 

It has not been incorporated as a town, therefore, 
suffers from many of the troubles of unincorporated 
villages. Sewers, gas, water, and policemen have 
their advantages, but the neighborhood has been so 
free from the evildoer that the police are not needed. 
Electric light enables us to see without gas and a coun- 
try town with many gardens and surrounding fields, 
when a health}^ community, overlooks the sewer prob- 
lem, and the rain from heaven collects water by the 
down spout when your well runs dry at less cost than 
the water main. But these bountiful aids to nature 
are not likely to live many months longer in . Silver 
Spring, for this flourishing community is even now 
planning a government to furnish all of these necessi- 
ties, besides the many other modern conveniences 
which we receive from politics and politicians, and for 
which we pay in good old American money. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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